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Online Dungeon Master Resources: Map Maker?

I'm apparently lacking the gift of understandable descriptions, sure they sound nice, but my players never seem to get the actual layout as I envision it. The curving corridor comes full circle leaving you where you started. In a circle. No, you're back where you started. You came in a circle. What do you mean where are you? You came in a circle. Sigh. Let me draw a map.

It's a bit of a pain uploading a new map picture, at least on my connection and Inkspace can be a bit of a resource hog to load up for something so minor, so I was wondering if anyone knew of a resource like Invisible Castle only for hosting interactive maps? It wouldn't have to come with a free host, I have my own server and could easily host the software myself...if it were available. I gave a glance through the open source community and will look more in-depth in a moment, but I figured that someone here might know off the top of their head and save me some time. Thanks.

Re: Online Dungeon Master Resources: Map Maker?

Things like OpenRPG and the (in my opinion superior) MapTool are very very helpful for running live games online -- better than sitting in an AIM chatroom or IRC. For games where that isn't feasible, like play-by-post games, it's not nearly as useful.

It still might not be quite what you're looking for, but did you know you could edit images within a Photobucket album? I haven't tested it thoroughly myself, but you've got the option to draw whatever, a simple map, in addition to all sorts of photographic effects. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't even need to change the link to the original image, which saves you the effort of constant re-uploading.

Re: Online Dungeon Master Resources: Map Maker?

You can use the spreadsheet part of Google Docs, and publish the maps when you have changes. Just fill squares in a particular color for walls/doors/etc, and use letter/numbers for PC/NPC/monster positions.

Easy to update, and the same link will show the updates if you re-publish.

Re: Online Dungeon Master Resources: Map Maker?

Check out Battlegrounds: RPG Edition (the link is in my sig). In addition to letting you move tokens around on a map, it also has a full complement of drawing tools and a dynamic text labeling tool. You can either use it to play live games, or use its built-in screencapture feature to easily generate map updates that you can post on a forum or upload to a game server.

On the Battlegrounds site, you'll also find links to every other RPG-oriented virtual tabletop program available, as well as a link to a feature comparison chart that covers most of the popular VTs.

Hope this helps!

Battlegrounds: RPG Edition is easy-to-use virtual tabletop software for both Macs and Windows PCs that allows you to play any RPG online or offline.